Improved single frequency estimation with wide acquisition range

An improved method for estimating the frequency of a single complex sinusoid in complex additive white Gaussian noise is proposed. The method uses a modified version of the weighted linear predictor to achieve optimal accuracy at low/moderate SNR while retaining its speed and wide acquisition range. Consequently, it has an advantage over known methods that use the weighted phase averager since they suffer from an increased threshold effect at frequencies approaching the full estimation range.